PARAMUS — A pristine alcove in the dense suburbs of North Jersey is playing host to Tiger Woods and his fellow PGA Tour pros this week.

The upscale venue, known as Ridgewood Country Club, is the scene for the first round of the 2018 FedEx Cup Playoff: The Northern Trust.

The country club opened in 1929 around a stately clubhouse that landed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.

As another example of confusing New Jersey geography, Ridgewood Country Club is not in the village of Ridgewood. But it used to be.

Unfurling from the swimming, tennis and dining facilities are 27 golf holes built alongside the clubhouse amid a 257-acre tract. The holes comprise three nine-hole courses that are enveloped in classical New Jersey fashion by highways, a cemetery, a community college, a housing development and an office park.

It’s not in Ridgewood, but it used to be

The Ridgewood Country Club golf course in Paramus, NJ(Photo: Courtesy of the Ridgewood Country Club)

Ridgewood Country Club records date the club’s origin to 1910 and the consolidation of the formerly separate Ridgewood Country and Golf clubs. The latter was conceived in Ridgewood in 1901 by dissatisfied members of a nine-hole golf course a mile and a half away in Ho-Ho-Kus.

After the consolidation, the members of the relaunched Ridgewood Country Club funded a new course, part of which extended into the neighboring town of Glen Rock. Sixteen holes were open by the end of August 1913. The final two holes opened two months later alongside a new clubhouse on Lincoln Avenue.

After a review in the mid-1920s, club leadership deemed the hilly course untenable. The club purchased its current Paramus home in 1927, started construction on a massive Norman Revival clubhouse and hired Albert Warren "Tillie" Tillinghast to build 27 championship holes.

Former New York Islander goaltender Rick DiPietro carries his club like a hockey stick. He was one of the celebrities who attended the the Northern Trust PGA Pro Am in Paramus, NJ. Chris Pedota/NorthJersey.com

By the time Tillinghast was tasked with finding and sculpting the acreage for the new Ridgewood Counrty Club, his legacy had already been cemented. The former newspaper editor and sportswriter had designed Baltusrol, Essex County and Somerset Hills in New Jersey, and Winged Foot and Quaker Ridge in New York.

Before crafting courses from Quebec to California, Tillinghast played, photographed and wrote about golf. He organized tournaments and is credited by many, including Baltusrol’s website, with popularizing golfer rankings and the term “birdie.”

Before his 1942 death at age 66, Tillinghast helped shape more than 260 golf courses. Ridgewood Country Club, by design, contains three courses: East, Center and West.

This week’s tournament incorporates holes from all three.

NEWSLETTERS

Get the Breaking News newsletter delivered to your inbox

We're sorry, but something went wrong

Get breaking news from all around North Jersey delivered to your inbox as soon as it happens.

The first seven holes from the East Course start the standard 18-hole round at The Northern Trust. Golfers then play holes 2 through 6 on the Center Course before ending their rounds on holes 4 through 9 on the West Course.

The mix includes an undaunting 155-yard par 3 called “Beeches” after its former vegetative cover (15), a modern three-shot par 5, the 623-yard “Muckle” (13), and a drivable par 4 with the 291-yard “Scoonie” (12).

'Lord' Byron Nelson was a club pro

“Scoonie” could be the most famous hole at Ridgewood Country Club. With an elevated green and multiple approach options, the picturesque hole went viral in 2014 when Phil Mickelson’s tee shots bounced off the cart path into the hospitality area on consecutive days. Both errors forced him to part a seated crowd and chip off a carpeted deck.

If Mickelson had heeded long-documented advice from a former assistant pro at the club, he surely would have come through with par. That pro, golf legend Byron Nelson, is credited with nicknaming “Scoonie” “Five and Dime” in a reference to his recommended strategy: five iron off the tee, wedge to green.

Story continues after video

Nelson arrived at Ridgewood Country Club in 1935 and won his first big tournament that year in the New Jersey State Open. In 1937, Nelson would win the Masters while posting a low-round score of 66, a mark that would hold up for more than 40 years.

Nelson won four more majors, including the 1939 U.S. Open, before curtailing his pro golf schedule significantly after the 1946 season to become a Texas rancher at the age of 34. He still holds records for most tour victories in a year (18) and consecutive tour wins (11) from the 1945 season. Only 48 golfers have had 18 or more PGA Tour wins in their entire careers.

Greats have graced Ridgewood

This week’s event is Ridgewood Country Club’s fourth since 2008. All four have kicked off the year-ending FedEx Cup. The 2010 winner, Matt Kuchar, is the only returning champion in this year's field and will undoubtedly be welcomed with chants of "Kuch."

Ridgewood Country Club's tournament history coincides with Nelson’s arrival in 1935, when it served as the host of the fifth Ryder Cup.

Zach Johnson hits a ball during a practice round at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus. Tuesday, August 21, 2018(Photo: Kevin R. Wexler/NorthJersey.com)

The famed intercontinental team golf competition was won that year by an American team captained by Walter Hagen. The 10-man team, which would go on to boast a collective 28 major titles, won 9-3 over a combined Great Britain and Ireland side led by the three Whitcombe brothers: Charles, Ernest and Reg.

Ridgewood Country Club would host other famed tournaments, including the 1974 U.S. Amateur, won by Jerry Pate, and the 1990 U.S. Senior Open, won by Lee Trevino in a playoff over Jack Nicklaus. After a mid-1990s course restoration led by Gil Hanse, the club held the 2001 Senior PGA Championship, won by Tom Watson.

Some non-golf greats are also tangentially connected to the club's Central Course. George Washington Memorial Park, a cemetery next to the tournament’s 10th hole, contains the graves of Grammy-winning singer Luther Vandross and former Yankees catcher Elston Howard.